Consultation begins on Hounslow day care services

HOUNSLOW councillors have voted to close two day care centres in the borough subject to a consultation ending on March 31. There was heated debate in the council chamber on Tuesday night as Hounslow Council discussed £18m of savings including the possible closure of Bedfont Day Care Centre and Chiswick Day Care Centre. Concerned residents packed out the Hounslow Civic Centre and heard four hours of discussion between councillors before the budget for 2011/12 was passed. Council tax will be frozen for the fifth consecutive year to keep the burden of financial pressures "away from hard working residents". But householders may start to see significant changes across the borough as some front line services are up for potential closure and cut backs including the day care centres. The consultation process will see a series of meetings held with service users and their family members. However, the budget does include an investment of an additional £2.8 million to protect critical services for children and young people in the borough. A package of savings was originally proposed in December, following the Government's announcement that it would be cutting funding to the council. These were then put to public consultation to find out residents views of the options. The consultation received more than 6,000 replies, and as a result changes have been made to the original savings package including the postponement of library savings and community halls savings. On Tuesday night, opposition Tory members made a last ditch bid to save the day centres from closure,, but their efforts fell on deaf ears. Conservative cllr Adrian Lee said, in reference to the day care centres: "Please don't just ram this through this evening, this is very serious. This particular cut is the worst of the lot." Tory Cllr Liz Mammatt, spoke of the impact this would have on service users of the Bedfont Day Centre. She said: "Just rethink and look after the vulnerable people who need the day centre." 14 petitions gathered by local community groups and organisations, including one to save the borough's libraries from Chronicle readers, were officially presented. A total of 12,040 signatures were collected for the protection of local libraries, and other services. A number of residents spoke for their petitions, their words were followed by energetic rounds of applause from the public gallery. Alex Beumer, chairman of the Hounslow Pensioners Forum, and a Bedfont resident, said: "Bedfont Library has been in the community for since 1955, it has withstood great change. "If you participate in closing Bedfont Library, you participate in closing Bedfont as a community." The organiser of a 1,343 signature strong petition to protect Chiswick Day Care Centre said: "If you close this facility it will be ripping the heart out of the community." Speaking after the meeting, cllr Jagdish Sharma, leader of the council said: "When families across the borough are struggling to make every pound go as far as possible, it would be wrong of us to ask for more money from them. "It hasn't been easy to set this budget, and we have had to make some difficult choices. But we have spent a lot of time listening to what local people have said is important to them." The date for a decision on the day care centres is yet to be confirmed.